Persian Gulf crisis

The 2019 Gulf of Oman crisis was a period of heightened political tensions between the United States and Iran beginning with an alleged Iranian attack on four Norwegian, Saudi Arabian, and Emirati merchant ships on 12 May 2019. The United States deployed a carrier strike group, 4 B-52 bombers, and 2,500 more troops to the Gulf, and, on 20 June, President Donald Trump even considered launching retaliatory airstrikes on Iran after Iran shot down a US drone.

Background
As the result of the 2016 presidential election in the United States, the divisive Republican candidate Donald Trump won a highly controversial election in which Russia and, allegedly, China meddled in the election to sabotage Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Trump, unlike his Democrat predecessor Barack Obama, was opposed to a nuclear deal with Iran, and Trump accused the deal of opening the door for a nuclear holocaust. In July 2017, he placed sanctions on Iran, Russia, and North Korea, and, in May 2018, he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. In late July 2018, in response to the US sanctions and Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz to US traffic. At the same time, Trump began plotting to assist Iranian opposition groups against the government, which he openly accused of sponsoring terrorism. On 13 August 2018, Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei ended direct talks with the United States, and Iran resumed its nuclear program. In April 2019, the US government - against the advice of the CIA - designated Iran's IRGC armed forces as a terrorist group, a major insult to the Iranian government.

Crisis
In May 2019, the United States began deploying more military assets to the Persian Gulf after receiving word of an Iranian plan to use its proxies to hinder oil shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians also began to place missiles on dhows to threaten the US Navy in the region. On 5 May 2019, National Security Advisor John Bolton announced the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and four B-52s to the Middle East after Israeli intelligence warned the US of Iranian plans to attack US forces in the region.

On 12 May 2019, four commercial ships, including two Saudi Aramco oil tankers, were torpedoed near the port of Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman, and the United Arab Emirates and the United States blamed Iran or its proxies for the attack. On 13 May, US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan planned to send 120,000 more US troops to the Middle East if Iran took further action against US assets. On 15 May, the US evacuated all non-emergency staff from the US embassy in Baghdad. On 24 May, five days after a rocket landed near the US embassy in Baghdad, 900 fresh troops were sent to the Middle East. On 17 June, 1,000 more troops were sent to the Middle East after two oil tankers were attacked by Iranian limpet mines. On 20 June, the Iranian IRGC shot down a US drone, which it claimed violated Iranian airspace. The US argued that it was over international waters, and Trump ordered a retaliatory strike that same day. He decided to halt the operation after he was warned that as many as 150 Iranians could be killed, and his reversal was criticized by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and by Bolton. On 22 June, however, he approved cyber attacks on IRGC rocket and missile control systems, and, on 25 June, Iran cut off diplomatic relations with the USA. On 28 June, the US deployed 12 F-22 Raptor jets to Qatar to defend American forces and interests. On 18 July 2019, the USS Boxer downed an Iranian drone by electronically jamming it, causing renewed tensions. Just a day later, two British oil tankers were seized by Iranian ships, with the Liberian-flagged tanker Mesdar being allowed to continue on and the British-flagged Stena Impero being captured.